Access ShipStation Data in Mule Applications Using the CData JDBC Driver

The CData JDBC Driver for ShipStation connects ShipStation data to Mule applications enabling read functionality with familiar SQL queries. The JDBC Driver allows users to easily create Mule applications to backup, transform, report, and analyze ShipStation data.

This article demonstrates how to use the CData JDBC Driver for ShipStation inside of a Mule project to create a Web interface for ShipStation data. The application created allows you to request ShipStation data using an HTTP request and have the results returned as JSON. The exact same procedure outlined below can be used with any CData JDBC Driver to create a Web interface for the 200+ available data sources.

1. Create a new Mule Project in Anypoint Studio.
2. Add an HTTP Connector to the Message Flow.
3. Configure the address for the HTTP Connector.
4. Add a Database Select Connector to the same flow, after the HTTP Connector.
5. Create a new Connection (or edit an existing one) and configure the properties.
   • Set Connection to "Generic Connection"
   • Select the CData JDBC Driver JAR file in the Required Libraries section (e.g. cdata.jdbc.shipstation.jar).
   • Set the URL to the connection string for ShipStation

     Use the BASIC Authentication standard to connect.

     1. Login to your ShipStation account
     2. Click on the settings icon in the upper right corner. A column menu will show up on the left
     3. Click Account -> API Settings
     4. On the API Settings page, note the API Key and API Secret.

     Authenticating to ShipStation

     • APIKey: Set this to the API key from the API settings page.
     • APISecret: Set this to the Secret key from the API settings page.

     Built-in Connection String Designer

     For assistance in constructing the JDBC URL, use the connection string designer built into the ShipStation JDBC Driver. Either double-click the JAR file or execute the jar file from the command-line.

     java -jar cdata.jdbc.shipstation.jar

     Fill in the connection properties and copy the connection string to the clipboard.

   • Set the Driver class name to cdata.jdbc.shipstation.ShipStationDriver.
   • Click Test Connection.
6. Set the SQL Query Text to a SQL query to request ShipStation data. For example: SELECT Id, Color FROM Tags WHERE CustomerId = '1368175'
7. Add a Transform Message Component to the flow.
8. Set the Output script to the following to convert the payload to JSON:

   %dw 2.0
   output application/json
   ---
   payload
           

9. To view your ShipStation data, navigate to the address you configured for the HTTP Connector (localhost:8081 by default): http://localhost:8081. The ShipStation data is available as JSON in your Web browser and any other tools capable of consuming JSON endpoints.

At this point, you have a simple Web interface for working with ShipStation data (as JSON data) in custom apps and a wide variety of BI, reporting, and ETL tools. Download a free, 30 day trial of the JDBC Driver for ShipStation and see the CData difference in your Mule Applications today.